The government held its first monthly meeting for 2019 on January 31, during which Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc asked ministries, sectors, and localities to continue consolidating macro-economic stability and promoting growth, calling this the most important task for the year.

As quoted by the Vietnam News Agency, in assessing the socio-economic situation in January, the Prime Minister told the meeting that positive trends have been maintained, which is a great opportunity that sectors and localities must stay ready to grasp.

He asked ministers and heads of sectors to pay special attention to realizing the targets in their fields and added that they need to conduct regular revisions of their performance and identify suitable and timely responses to domestic and international developments.

Providing detailed directions to each sector, Prime Minister Phuc told the State Bank of Vietnam to keep steering monetary policy, exchange rates, and interest rates in a flexible manner and in harmony with fiscal and other macro policies. Its moves must be consistent with inflation control, macro-economic stabilization, and growth promotion targets, he emphasized.

Credit provision should be focused on prioritized fields that are working as growth engines, so as to curb loan sharking. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance needs to further tighten financial discipline in the use of the State budget and enhance inspections over budget use.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has to take concerted and effective measures to bolster exports and control imports, Prime Minister Phuc said, noting that he has assigned the ministry to compile a plan on responses to trade disputes.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development was asked to shortly announce the completion of new-style rural areas in certain provinces. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Information and Communications was told to augment its efforts to ensure cyber security and strictly deal with actions that take advantage of freedom of speech and media to violate the interests of the State, organizations, and citizens.

As for the upcoming Tet festival, the Prime Minister stressed that the top task of ministries and localities is to ensure a safe, joyful but thrifty Tet for everyone. “Efforts must be made to ensure that not even a single person goes without Tet,” he directed.